Director: R. Zachary Shildwachter and B.J. Colangelo
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Plot:
Trying to make a living for his family, a wrestler tries to get ready for an upcoming match when he’s abducted by his biggest fan and held hostage for his own perverse fantasies against everyone else’s knowledge, leaving him to fend for himself in order to escape from his situation alive.
Review:
This was an incredibly problematic and somewhat underwhelming thriller. As per usual, the whole idea of the film’s insistence on trying to set up the geeky, obsessive fanatic who’s too blind to accept the truth about the wrestling business which causes him to think that makes it okay to abduct and kidnap his favorite performer to hold him hostage is cliche and unbelievable. This is such a worn-out and overdone trope that it’s barely realistic or threatening at all, especially when the near entirety of it is played off with monologuing and vague threats that aren’t connected to anything happening on-screen. The speeches don’t mean anything, don’t connect us to him in any additional sympathetic format especially with most of the running time taken up with a fake-out story that’s obvious the second it starts in. it just wastes time and doesn’t do anything to further the story about what the kidnapping was supposed to be about or what’s the end-game of the whole exercise.
As if the main storyline is incredibly frustrating and flawed, the secondary plot isn’t that much better. Focusing on the sleazy agent who’s trying to go around finding out why he no-showed the event or the family trying to come to terms with his decision to leave for that match without knowing he no-showed, this one tends to run around in completely non-thrilling or uninteresting aspects as everything is completely misguided without centering on the obvious. With the no-show and inability to contact him at all, the obvious choice would be to get the authorities involved and look for him even if the agent involves the family or not just for his own benefit as the majority of time spent here just makes the whole experience feel like a waste especially with the end result being how close he was all along. As it feels incredibly realistic and on-point with the real-life independent wrestler scene being it’s only positive, there wasn’t a whole lot to like here.
Overview: */5
Even without getting much right about the abduction or the general attitude everyone has towards it, the fact that this one just isn’t that thrilling or exciting for nearly the entire running time manages to leave this without a lot of positives anyway as there isn’t much going on here. Really only look into this one if you’re a fan of the independent wrestling scene or one of the performers involved, but most everyone else won’t be swayed by this one.
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